Page 50 of Wolf Bound

Marcus laughs loudly, throwing his head back like it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard. When he looks back at my mates, his brown eyes are so dark they look almost black.

“No, you won’t. You see, I’m here to challenge you,” Marcus sneers at Drayton, a cruel glint in his eyes. “And when I kill you, I’ll be the alpha like I should have been all along. After that, I’ll kill the rest of you, but not before I make you watch me take your bitch as my own.”

Oh, no.This isn’t going to end well for him. He just made this ten times worse than it already was and that’s saying something.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Talia

Drayton smiles at the challenge, the chill in his eyes sending an involuntary shiver down my spine. “It’s about fucking time you challenged me. Did you finally find enough wolves to back you up? Or are you actually going to do the challenge the honourable way?”

The smile on Marcus’ face dims a little, panic replacing the cruelty in his dark eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Riii-ight,” Drayton drags out, rolling his eyes with disdain. “Sure, you don’t. I’ll be sure to let the Bruna pack know that you don’t claim them as allies and that wecan, in fact, work together.”

Marcus clamps his mouth shut with an audible snap. Turning on his heel, he marches back out, turning around only when he gets to the front door.

“Outside. Ten minutes.”

“You got it, traitor,” Drayton yells back, a smirk firmly in place on his face.

When Marcus is fully out of sight, Alaric bursts into laughter beside me. His booming laugh sets Penn and Drayton off as well. Forrester tightens his arm around my waist and places a chaste kiss on the top of my head. His body has gone tense, and his feet shift from side to side.

Wes starts closing up the laptops around us, clearly no longer feeling like he needs to relay the information to all of us since Marcus burst in here.

“Well, I guess the trash is taking itself out,” Wes grumbles with a smirk. “I didn’t think he was dumb enough to try this after the Croises’ attempt failed. You would think he would rethink his plan after they failed to hurt the pack as much as they hoped.”

I can hear what they’re saying, but all of this information is getting muddled in my brain and confusing me. The pain wafting off of Forrester and the elation of the others has me thinking there’s something about this challenge that I am missing.

“What’s going on?” I ask in a soft voice, not quite sure what’s going on.

“He thinks he’s walking into this challenge with half of our pack and the enforcers from at least three other packs at his side,” Alaric says with another chuckle. “Too bad for him, we made sure that would never happen. There’s no back up coming for him and when he realizes that, he’s going to hightail it the fuck out of here. It will be beautiful.”

Forrester cringes, but does his best to hide it by scratching his eyebrow.

The others don’t realize how it’s affecting him, but his pain echoes around me.

They can’t feel it the way I can, but they also don’t seem to notice him in this. His pain is clear as day to me and I want nothing more than to ease his discomfort.

Wes chimes in while he finishes packing up his electronics. “Dray also just intimidated the shit out of him by letting him know we knew about his plans with the other packs. He’s probably running around to find his back up and shitting his pants that they aren’t here.”

“Oh, that's why he went all panicky,” I murmur, connecting all the dots in my head finally. “So, are we going out to find him?”

“I already notified the guards on duty to keep an eye out for Marcus,” Drayton mumbles with a lazy stretch. “They'll let me know when he tries to escape and then we'll just lock him up in the cages until I'm ready to deal with him. Running from a challenge is a crime in and of itself and forfeits you from the pack. The treasonous crimes will bring his punishment from banishment to death.”

Forrester makes a grunting sound and slowly releases me from his grip. His hands shake, but he quickly tucks them into his pockets and out of sight.

“I, ah, need a minute. I understand why his punishment will be death, but that’s still my Uncle and I just—Fuck! I need a moment to process it.” Forrester's voice is shaky and uneven.

“Take all the time you need,” I murmur, kissing his cheek. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

We all remain mostly quiet as Forrester leaves the room, his footsteps echoing deeper into the house. I release a soft sigh when his bedroom door shuts a moment later and look at the guys with a shake of my head.

“That was a little inconsiderate,” I say, flicking my eyes between each of my guys. “You know Forrester is still workingthrough a lot of what he grew up with. He loves his uncle, despite all the stuff that happened. You could have been kinder about it and not made it feel like a joke.”

The guys drop their heads in unison, a tenseness filling the air. Drayton lets out a sigh and Alaric pulls me into his arms.

“Shit,” Drayton says in an apologetic tone. “You’re right. I know better. I was insensitive to him.”

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